Lakers Roll but Mind Games Begin

Laker practices, no longer the covert operation of the Pat Riley era, will move behind closed doors next week for the first time all season so there will be no advance warning on what lineup will open against the Rockets in the playoffs on Thursday. Call it the gamesmanship before the games.

“Houston will find out who we’re starting just before gametime,” Coach Del Harris said Saturday night after his short-handed Lakers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 106-82, before 17,505 at the Forum as Cedric Ceballos had 36 points and nine rebounds.

These are not normally issues for teams in the last weekend of the regular season, especially teams that have been successful enough to finish fourth in the conference. But, to be sure, these are not normal times for the Lakers, who have won 11 of their last 15 games and now must decide whether to juggle the lineup . . . again.

Sedale Threatt has played well as point guard pro tem, but figure Nick Van Exel gets the job back. Anything otherwise would be a shock, even to Threatt.

Small forward is a different matter--Ceballos or Magic Johnson?

Much may depend on the strength of Johnson’s bothersome left Achilles’ tendon and whether he prefers to start, a good possibility, and a change from previous desires, now that the Rockets, a team he feels he can have success against, is confirmed as the opponent. Besides, the Lakers’ very good run recently came with him in the opening lineup.

But the ability to bring a versatile player like Johnson off the bench can not be discounted. And Ceballos has been putting up nice numbers--24 points, 54.2% from the field--in the last four games for a coach that likes to ride the hot hand.

“He’s got a couple days to think about it,” said Ceballos, who came within two of his season high while making 14 of 22 shots against the Timberwolves. “We’ll see what happens.

“Whatever they come up with, whatever combination, it will be great for us.”

Already minus Johnson and Van Exel because of their suspensions, the Lakers also went without Vlade Divac because of the strained lower back he suffered Thursday at San Antonio. Harris said Divac could possibly play tonight at Portland and, more importantly, that this does not appear to be something that will hamper preparations for the postseason.

“I don’t think they’re concerned about the playoffs and his ability to be there,” Harris said of the Lakers’ medical staff.

For this game, though, with Van Exel and Johnson still serving suspensions, it left the Lakers with a nine-man squad and fortunately it was meaningless in the standings. And that it was against the Timberwolves.

This came at the same time Harris was trying to lessen Threatt’s work load, leading to lineups like the one in the second quarter that had no point guard and, with Elden Campbell having picked up three fouls, no center: George Lynch, Derek Strong, recently activated Fred Roberts, Anthony Peeler and Eddie Jones.

Even the most makeshift of rotations was enough to do in the Timberwolves--the Lakers had an 11-point lead in that second period and were up at halftime, 55-49, after committing only four turnovers. The cushion was cut to two soon after intermission, but the Lakers pushed it back to 14 with 3:53 remaining in the third, taking control for good.

Threatt, averaging 40.4 minutes the previous five games, went 31, five fewer than any of those since he took Van Exel’s place as the starting point guard.

“I was very satisfied with our game tonight,” Harris said. “I thought it would be a difficult game, simply because at practice this morning it seemed like our players had lost interest in the rest of the [regular] season and we only had nine guys.”

Said Ceballos: “We went out and played hard. Some of the Timberwolves were talking about playing golf next week. We always want to finish good. We don’t want that mentality at all.”

Laker Notes

With Vlade Divac out, Elden Campbell moved to center and George Lynch started at power forward. . . . Coach Del Harris got a technical in the first quarter. This comes as he is trying to repair his players’ image with officials, going so far Tuesday in Dallas to twice yell at Derek Strong to leave the referees alone. “Am I more sensitive to it?” Harris said. “Yes.” Maybe with good reason. About 10 days ago in Minnesota, veteran referee Jim Clark was logging downcourt when, apparently after getting an earful, turned back to the bench and said he had never heard so much complaining from the Lakers--”every single play,” he added in exasperation. . . . The eight points the Lakers scored in the fourth quarter at San Antonio was their lowest output for a period since Nov. 20, 1977, when they set the team record with only six points. The fewest in any NBA game this season is six, by the Charlotte Hornets on Feb. 27.